


confession

by orrabbit



Series: dissection of affection [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Character Study, F/M, First Meetings, Identity Reveal, Secret Crush, in a way ??????, no beta we die like cowards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 07:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19290652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orrabbit/pseuds/orrabbit
Summary: A lot of people like Félix, but Félix likes one (1) girl





	confession

Félix is aware of one thing: girls (and some guys) like him, a lot of them. He supposes it comes with his wealth, but even then, his looks are fawned over. The cold disposition he puts out does no less to deter any admirers. In fact, it probably encouraged even more girls to join their pursuit of wooing over Félix. Thinking they can be the ones to crack Félix out of his shell, and thinking maybe, just _maybe_ Félix has a sweeter personality heavily reserved within the walls of his heart. He heavily despises these types of people. Those who think they can control Félix to suit any of their fantasies. Those who never regarded Félix anything more than a pretty, stoic face. Those who remind him of his father. He looks forward to rejecting their confessions the most.

There’s also people who do genuinely have an interest in Félix although they are few and far between among the people in collège. They understand Félix the way he is, and they wouldn’t change anything about him. They’re often timid, but they still give Félix his personal space, unlike many. These people give Félix a sense of relief and guilt at the same time. The fact he knows he can’t reciprocate these feelings, even if he appreciates their gestures of admiration, can sometimes be insanely depressing. He absolutely does not look forward to rejecting their confessions, even if they both must endure it.

Félix is also aware of another thing: he is in love. Specifically, he is in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. At first, he was hesitant about labelling his newfound… interest in the girl. After many occasions of near-death akumas, accidental eye contact, intense blushing, and light brushes between their hands, Adrien remarks that Félix got it bad, _really bad_. (He is forever grateful that Adrien is the only person who knows about his crush.) Félix doesn’t know how to describe his thoughts relating to Marinette with solely words. To him, she’s like a gust of wind in a hot day, a relieving sip of tea after an intensely sweet dessert, and the soft thrum in a sonata. It’s a strange feeling, he thinks, to crave someone so heavily day after day. When his brother points out that Félix has started feigning a far-away look under the presence of anyone that’s not Marinette, Félix realizes he is no different than his so-called admirers (and allows himself to fall in deeper).

—

The first time Félix meets Marinette felt like an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. He remembers Adrien telling him that he had a terrible first impression in front of a girl who’s participating in the bowler hat design contest for their father, but assures him that they’re both good friends now. The contest was conveniently held in the school where Adrien goes and soon, Félix as well. His father had (forced) told him to tag along with Nathalie and his brother to get accustomed to the new educational environment, and Félix had to begrudgingly accept his fate. (Now he thanks the heavens above for this certain fate.)

When Félix arrived at Collège Françoise Dupont, he feels a figure briefly running past him up on the steps into the school. He glanced up to see a pigtailed girl carrying a box into the campus and wrinkled his face, definitely a late submitter. Adrien sees his face and laughs, commenting that they’re technically late as well, so Félix brushes the incident out of his mind. As they entered the building, the school’s headmaster welcomes them eagerly as Nathalie props up the tablet connecting to his father. Félix feels dozens of eyes staring at him as he used the time to briefly look at the submissions awaiting to be judged, to focus away from the attention. He sees a simple hat with various cogs on it, a strangely misshapen hat that probably took too much artistic liberties, and Chloé’s submission where it included a feather which took him by surprise. Had Chloé paid proper attention, she’d know Adrien is allergic to feathers, but the fact that the bowler hat was so well designed was… intriguing to say the least to Félix. Right before Félix catches the pigtailed girl pull out her submission, Nathalie snaps his attention back to the headmaster, who leads them to view the submissions one by one.

When they reached Chloé, he sees the blonde wax poetic about her hard work put into the design and the construction of the hat. Félix feels his eyes harden at Chloé’s blatant lies and ponders about what his father actually thinks about this whole situation. It’s clear that Chloé has no craftsmanship, but whoever designed the hat ought to deserve some praise. As they moved on to the next submission, Félix is alerted. The design was no doubt identical to Chloé’s which means the blonde clearly plagiarized, but how is Félix going to make that claim when there is no clear evidence? As his father ordered Nathalie to show Chloé’s design again, Félix noticed the pigtailed girl slowly grinning; a sign of an impending climax.

As Chloé glares at the girl and gives an embarrassingly pitiful expression to his father while rattling off about how her “work” is being plagiarized, the pigtailed girl coughs for attention. Félix feels like he’s in a roller coaster that’s stopping to slowly rise in the slope, and he’s brimming with excitement. The girl explains the technicalities of her design, such as the construction and her process, while Chloé twitches uncomfortably next to him. Félix feels like he’s being taken higher and higher into this ride as the girl goes further into detail. When she gets to the brim of the hat, he feels himself steeling for impact as the girl talks about a detail she does specifically for her own designs. Then comes the drop.

She shows her signature.

(Her name is Marinette.)

  
The descent is agonizingly chaotic. Chloé runs off in tears, asking for her father. The class erupted in surprised gasps. His father was praising Marinette a lot, a rare gesture. Adrien was grinning ear to ear. Marinette looks like she’s floating on cloud nine. Félix was still processing the genius behind her design.

As Adrien was about to place the bowler hat, Félix braced for his brother’s loud sneezes. Marinette looked in confusion as Adrien profusely apologizes while sneezing nonstop, unable to get his message across.

“He’s allergic to feathers,” Félix supplies helpfully.

“Oh… I guess I’ll have to make a version with synthetic feathers,” Marinette laughs meekly.

Félix doesn’t realize his mouth has a mind of its own until it’s too late. “I suppose so, but your design was really intelligent.”

The girl looked at him in surprise, ”th-thank you! Uh…”

“Félix, you’re Marinette right?” (Even though Félix knows this fact already deep down.)

“Thanks Félix, and yes, I’m Marinette. It’s nice to meet you,” she chuckles, a tinkling sound that Félix finds himself enamored to later.

“You too,” Félix replies.

(He finds Adrien teasing him in the limo after the event. Félix quickly refutes his brother, stating they’ve only just met each other. Even if their introduction felt like a million supernovas exploding, albeit in a much more subdued manner.)

—

So yes, Félix likes Marinette. He really, really likes Marinette. He also knows that he can’t invade her personal space, even though he knows Marinette doesn’t mind. He feels like he’d go feral if he hadn’t been a rational-minded individual and scare Marinette away easily, something he definitely does not want to happen. Every interaction with her leaves his neck flushing red underneath his tightly buttoned collar. Every conversation leaves his feelings more messy than ever. Every fleeting moment they’re together alone is basically turning Félix into a shameless admirer. Félix knows that very well, and he wants to physically kick himself for being such a creep.

But every gesture Marinette has done for him has always been sweet, meaningful, and endearing. Welcoming Félix into her small group of friends (which included Adrien, thankfully) without hesitation was a wonderful experience that Félix is grateful for. He looks forward to days where Marinette supplies her friends with plentiful pastries from her parents’ bakery. He also (secretly) looks forward to days where Marinette looks worn out from sewing a new piece the previous night which often resulted her in taking a brief nap before class (at his insistence). His heart always swells at the effort she puts in her designs when she finally displays her finished product, but he also wishes the poor girl can stop overworking herself. The soft and calm expression she has while napping always puts him at ease and- okay maybe Félix should shut up about her face before it gets any more creepy.

He also loves how Marinette would do anything to support her friends in general. From Alya’s Ladyblog to Nino’s musical career, her love for her friends seem endless. The one time she and their friends helped hide Félix from a stalker who couldn’t take no for an answer was poignant moment in his life. Félix remembers squeezing himself in a storage closet that Nino shoved him in, with Alya keeping watch as Marinette gives the most ice-cold stare he’s ever seen from her. The stalker had approached them for Félix’s whereabouts, aware that he is near. A steel grip from Marinette on the stalker’s arm and a cold warning that she’ll call the cops to file a restraining order for her friend resulted in the stalker scrambling away. Félix learns that people should know better not to mess with Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

He also remembers Marinette rushing to attend his violin recital with their friends at the absolute last minute; a series of _“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK”_ in the groupchat left the stoic blond chuckling softly in its wake. Right before the recital starts, Félix finally spots Marinette wading into the rows of seats to sit next to their friends after probably running a good kilometer or two to reach the venue. He can’t help but find her flushed face so endearing as his love for her grows tenfold onstage. He recalls his father giving small praise at his performance, but all he could focus on was Marinette’s vibrant smile of encouragement before he lowers the bow for the crescendo.

—

Oftentimes when Félix rejects any confession, he’d cite his schoolwork and father as the cause. On rare occasions though, for the people who he appreciated during their pursuit for his affections (at a respectable distance), he’d let out that he likes someone. Sometimes, they’d just nod in understanding. Other times, they’d ask who’s the lucky person in question. Félix’s mind quickly flicks to the dark-haired girl who’s equally kind as she is talented then bluntly reply that it’s none of their business.

Adrien also likes to lecture to Félix about his terrible self-coping mechanism of bottling his emotions up (which is true), and how any normal person would say his coping habits are barely healthy (which is also true, but focusing on work helps him avoid catching feelings). Félix knows he puts up a terribly thick wall between him and his friends. Between him and his father. For Marinette… it’s a different story. He feels like Marinette didn’t just throw a wrecking ball at his emotional wall and expect him to fully express his emotions, no way. She’s always understanding of Félix and took her time getting to know him, while Félix allowed her smiles to slowly crumble his walled heart. He wishes he could do more than just monitoring Marinette’s health and help her take notes that she missed out while she was a blink away from sleep, but he also knows Marinette is stubborn. When Félix briefly vents about how he doesn’t do much for his friends or even his brother to Marinette, she gave him a good flick on the head, stating that Félix’s just as important as their friends together and the fact that he’s done way more than he accounts himself for. Félix finds himself being enveloped in a warm hug and thinks he really doesn’t deserve Marinette.

Adrien also insists that Félix should just confess to Marinette, seeing no harm in it. Félix is well-aware that Marinette still has good relationships with people who had confessed to her, and Adrien is by no means incorrect. Adrien mentions that Marinette is also probably Félix’s closest confidant, and Félix pauses to think. Marinette has a fair share of secrets that only Félix knows, and so does Marinette with Félix. Not even Adrien has more blackmail on Félix than Marinette, but Félix knows deep down Marinette would never exploit this knowledge. Since Alya started dating Nino, Marinette has started hanging out with him just _slightly_ more- oh God, Adrien is really rubbing off on him. Félix doesn’t want to get his hopes high, nope, he can’t afford to lose this semblance of peace when Marinette is still hanging out with him, blissfully unaware of his puny, irrelevant feelings.

(“You’re _so_ dramatic Félix; I think you get that from pére.” Adrien sighs wistfully while Félix flings a throw pillow at him in retaliation.)

—

It’s not uncommon for any recipient of Félix’s rejections to turn into an akuma. In fact, he’s starting to pick his words much more carefully when it comes to rejection ever since Hawkmoth has started wreaking havoc. An ugly responsibility he must shoulder that he initially shouldn’t have to. He’s seen the God awful purple butterfly fluttering nearby dozens of times, and he quickly adjusts his tone to soothe the rejection. Sometimes, his words do work. Most of the time, the butterfly just straight up melds into the person, and Félix immediately knows it’s a lost cause and takes cover.

Félix also knows full well that the aftermath of the rejection is not his fault, nor is it the recipient’s fault. Just a stranger in Paris who decided it’s a good day to exploit uncontrollable emotions and manipulate them to serve him for greater evil. He absolutely abhors whoever thought this was a good idea to take over the world because the whole situation is just so sad. Félix is just grateful that the two heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, are there to defend Paris. He couldn’t imagine the amount of pressure that they’re put to solve this huge conflict against such an incorrigible person. At times of akuma attacks, all Félix could think is his brother and Marinette’s safety. The more often it happens the more worrying these situations turn into. Throughout the whole ordeal, both of them are nowhere to be found. Marinette and her clumsiness and Adrien and his uncanny ability into getting unfortunate situations. At the end of the day, Félix is always pacing back and forth in the safety of his room while waiting for the superheroes to end the fight. More often than not, both of them end up being hit by the akuma, and both of them also end up being scolded heavily by Félix. What would Félix do if both of them were actually physically harmed? He prefers to not think about that hypothetical situation.

Which is why he tenses when he sees Marinette limping by a wall during a particularly gnarly akuma attack. Félix immediately ran next to the girl, lifting one of her arms on his shoulder and brushing away her tangled hair to reveal an ugly bruise underneath. Marinette was breathing heavily, but still in a decent condition.

“You need to go to the hospital! You can’t be out here in this condition!” Félix barks at her as she groans.

“But Chat Noir and L-“

“Leave it to them, your safety is the number one priority right now.”

Marinette remains quiet as they trudged in the streets and reached to the front door of her family’s bakery. Marinette nudged to the general direction of her house, and Félix complied. When they entered, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng were nowhere to be found, probably taken by the akuma who had a particular dislike to adults. The blond pulled out a chair and placed it next to a counter to prop Marinette up while the girl was fumbling with her purse.

“You know how worrying it is to be out there during an akuma attack?” Félix speaks softly as he searches for a first aid kit in the kitchen, “and for you to be out there I just-“

“Fé, can you just come here for a bit?”

Félix frowns; Marinette typically didn’t have such a solemn tone. He scooted next to Marinette and sat across her, noting to himself to keep a small distance away from her.

“I,” Marinette pauses, seemingly thinking over her words heavily, “I got something to confess.”

Félix perks up, trying not to get excited over any prospect of having a romantic confession in this dire situation. “You know that you can trust me with anything, right?” Félix says.

“Well yeah,” Marinette smiles sheepishly, “but… well I’ve kept this away from you for a long time, and I think you should know about this.”

“You do know that I just found you in the middle of the street injured, and I’ll still have to lecture you about general safety in akuma attacks.” (Did she find out about his dumb crush? Is she coming out?)

“I know! I know! Just promise you won’t get mad after this,” Marinette bites her lip (a habit she hasn’t stopped).

Félix sighs, “fine, what is it Marinette?”

Marinette breathes evenly and stares at Félix head-on. It’s no ordinary confession.

The room feels just like when Félix met Marinette the first time. The growing descent of a roller coaster. The beginning of a crescendo. The collapse of gravity. The supernovas-

 

“I’m Ladybug.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this whole blurb about félix!!!!! anyway we need more felinette content


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